Last night I was unlucky; I was walking, and my money fell on the path. in Tetun
Hori kalan ha'u sorte aat; ha'u la'o hela, ha'u nia osan monu iha dalan.
English → Tetun phrasebook
Grammar in this phrase
Aspect markers
hela — 'currently' or 'reside'
helaAfter a verb, 'hela' marks continuous aspect ('is ...-ing'). As a standalone verb it means 'live, reside'. Often paired with 'sei' for 'is still ...-ing'.
Possession
nia / nian — possession
nia'nia' goes BEFORE the thing possessed; 'nian' goes AFTER. Both function the same way; position decides which form. 'nia' is also the 3rd-person pronoun (he / she / it) — disambiguate by position.
More patterns like these in the Tetun grammar guide.
Translate your own text with the free English ↔ Tetun translator or look up individual words in the Tetun dictionary.
Related phrases
- Hori kalan rai nakdoko, ami hotu halai saruntu malu ba li'ur, to'o avoo monu hanehan tan ha'u nia alin.Last night there was an earthquake, and we all stampeded out of the house, so much so that grandma fell on top of my younger brother.
- Hori kalan ami haree televizaun.Last night we watched television.
- Ha'u horikalan haree kois de'it Quina iha merkadu Taibesi.Last night I glimpsed Quina in the Taibesi market.
- Hori kalan Lino tua lanu tanba nia hemu barak loos iha festa kazamentu.Last night Lino was drunk because he drank so much at the wedding.
- Ohin polísia hadame joven na'in rua ne'ebé baku malu hori kalan.The police reconciled the two young people who had a fight last night.
- Horikalan Edio lees matan to'o tuku tolu tanba haree filme baku malu.Last night Edio stayed up until two o'clock watching bash-em-up films.